


The Academy

by Misanagi



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Captivity, Friendship, Gen, Hurt Tony, Superpowers, Teenagers, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Torture, Violence, unfinished kind of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 16:54:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17005497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misanagi/pseuds/Misanagi
Summary: Teenagers with superhuman abilities are rounded up by the government in a place called "The Academy". When Tony tries to get his friend Bruce out, he ends up locked up with them.





	The Academy

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my hard drive for a while. For a long while. Probably since The Avengers... so yeah, I wrote this with the idealist eyes of 2012 before Ultron, and JARVIS and "So was I". Also before any snap. 
> 
> I've been reading some old Avengers fics and I remembered I had this one in my drive, unfinished, neglected but still something I wouldn't be adversed to posting if I ever finished. Thing is, I don't know if that'll ever happen. So fair warning, this might be all there is of this fic. 
> 
> I don't know how to pick this up again after Civil War. I'm still very salty about it and I can't get myself into the happy post The Avengers feeling. 
> 
> So I'm posting it as it is, no promises, just sharing something I once wrote.
> 
> Unbetaed.

Tony Stark is a genius. It's a proven fact. He aced the tests, did the magazine interviews and built a robot when he was six. He got accepted to MIT at fifteen. Fifteen! And he is well on his way to finishing his degree (the second one) when he does something monumentally stupid. 

At least that's what Bruce says but Tony doesn't agree. Okay, he would have preferred if things went differently but even though it ended up with him _inside_ The Academy instead of Bruce _outside_ of it, he doesn't regret it. 

He regrets not taking the time to find a way to channel more power into the hand repulsors and he quite regrets that his dear old daddy had sold Ross a perfectly functioning EMP before he died. But he doesn't regret coming for Bruce. He could never regret that. 

“Yes you will,” Bruce says, much later, when Tony explains that none of it is Bruce's fault. Everything is Ross' fault, and the stupid government's, and the stupid Superhuman Bill's and in a weird convoluted way, his dad's fault, but it most definitely isn't Bruce's.

The thing is Tony really likes Bruce. When he first arrived at MIT Bruce was the TA in one of those chemistry classes he was forced to take and, somehow, after giving him disapproving looks during the first weeks, they managed to start a conversation and became friends. 

Tony has never met anyone, except his father - and he definitely doesn't count- that can keep up with him intellectually. Bruce is smart and funny and shy in a hilarious way. He also started college too young. He is two years older than Tony but they managed to bond. By Tony's second year of school they became best friends. 

So it was no surprise that when the Superhuman Bill passed and the government started rounding up all the people with abilities between the ages of 16 and 20 for “training” Tony was very much against letting Bruce go. 

“There's nothing I can do,” Bruce tried to explain. “They already know about me”. 

Tony hadn't, not until he found Bruce watching the news and looking a bit green. It took days of nagging and probing before Bruce told Tony about his mother, and how a Gamma Ray experiment gone wrong resulted in her death and the miraculous saving of her unborn son. However, baby Bruce suffered some consequences... he kind of turns into a rage monster whenever he's angered. 

Turns out Bruce has been dealing with that little green problem for all his life and the government has always known about him. He was on the first list of names released and, despite all of Tony's pleas, bribes and threats, he turned himself in on the appointed date. 

It sucked. Tony tried to contact him, without success, for two weeks. He even drove to The Academy once, just to be turned away at the entrance and held in custody for twelve hours at the nearest police station after he tried to bribe the guards. 

A month after Bruce went in, Tony found some creepy things being written about The Academy in the hacker's networks. Apparently, civil liberties don't quite apply to superhumans and the people recruited there are being experimented on, physically punished and treated as slaves, instead of people. 

That's when Tony decided enough was enough and he started to work on a way to get Bruce out. It took him a month to get the Mark 0 ready and he performed barely the basic tests before he was on route to The Academy, ready to start a prison break. 

It didn't go quite like he wanted. 

Oh, he did take them by surprise, caused a lot of property damage, injured quite a few of the guards and even got to see Bruce, standing in what appeared to be an obstacle field. He brought down the outer perimeter fence and was about to start on the inner one when he was hit by the EMP and all systems went down. He had enough power left to hit the self destruct sequence before he fell out of the sky and into the unforgiven ground. 

And that's how Tony gets caught. He still maintains it wasn't stupid, really. 

It sucks in several levels because they don't charge him and send him to regular juvie. No, General Ross, the douchebag, decides that apparently Tony's intelligence and the fact that he was able to build such an advanced armor, means that he is a superhuman and will be imprisoned in The Academy with the rest of the “freaks” (Ross's word).

Ross does imply that maybe Tony could give his cooperation to the army, build an armor and a few other things for them, and they would consider rethinking the whole superhuman thing. 

Tony tells him to go fuck himself.

That's how he ends up in an ugly grey uniform, standing next to a badly bruised boy in the same hideous outfit, in front of a guard who demands to be called “Sargent”. They are in a bare room and there are two other guards standing behind them.

Sargent explains how they are now the property of the U.S. Army and all their rights and liberties have been rescinded for the good of the country. He says other things that Tony labels in his head as propaganda and tunes out.

“Asshole,” the boy beside him mutters under his breath and one of the guards behind them hits him on the back of the knee with a baton. The boy winces but doesn't fall down. 

“You do not speak unless spoken to,” Sargent says and glares at them. 

The boy opens his mouth and Tony doesn't know why he steps in and says, “Like you’re capable of intelligent conversation…”

He gets a baton hit on the side. “Fuck!” And one to the arm. This time he keeps quiet. 

The boy gives him a weird look and the Sargent continues explaining the rules and their new - lower than dirt - position in life. 

Twenty minutes later they are ushered to another room where they get fitted with a metal bracelet on their right hand. It has ten led lights all around that glow red. Tony looks closely at it. The locking mechanism appears to be seamless at first glance and he can't quite figure out how to get it open again. He gets hit on the shoulder when he looks at it too long and gets told to move on. 

They step into another room and before he knows, Tony gets punched and kicked to the ground. He tries to fight back but there are five of them and there's little he can do. He puts his arms over his head and tries to curl in on himself. 

“Not so tough without the suit, uh?” one of the attackers, a guard, says and delivers a final kick before they mercifully stop. 

Someone tries to help him up and Tony fights until he realizes it's the boy from before. The bruised one. The corner of the boy's lip is bleeding and Tony allows him to help. 

“I got the same when they caught me,” the boy says with a smirk. “They didn't like that I took out eight of them.”

Tony tries to grin but his lip hurts. “It took out two buildings,” he says and the boy laughs. 

“Clint Barton,” the other introduces himself, stretching his hand. 

Tony grasps it but doesn't get to say his name before they are being pushed again, towards a set of double doors.

It's nighttime. They are outside the administrative building where they had been held, and a couple of guards push them towards a gate in a chain link fence. 

“Two new level fours, Lieutenant Mitchell,” one of the guards says, handing a folder to the soldier at the door. “That's the one who blew the fence,” he adds, pointing at Tony. 

The look the lieutenant gives him doesn't bode well for Tony. He looks at their bracelets and asks, “Punishment detail?”

The first guard nods and smirks. “For a couple of days at least, they’re both little shits.”

“Little shits that kicked your ass,” Tony mutters, unable to stop himself. It isn't even a shock when he gets hit again. 

They are not taken to a cell, as Tony had thought, but to a cage in the middle of the yard. It's an area of about six by six surrounded by a chain link fence, about 8 feet tall, with barbwire on the top. There's no roof and no floor other than the rough dirt ground. 

They are pushed and locked inside and then the lieutenant leaves them for the night. 

“Tony,” he introduces himself when they are finally alone. 

“What's your power?” Clint asks and sits down on the ground. “Looks like we're sleeping here.”

“Fancy,” Tony says and sits down carefully beside Clint. Fuck, but everything hurts. “I'm super smart, and you?”

Clint arches an eyebrow. “Good aim.”

“Do you get the feeling that they are inventing superpowers just to trap us here?”

Clint, as it turns out, got snatched from the circus. Really. He had this Amazing Hawkeye act going and the next thing he knows the army is hunting him because he is a superhuman. 

“Which is bullshit,” Clint says. “They just want me to kill people for them.”

Clint and Tony get on like a house on fire, or a freezing house since it's fucking cold and they are caged outside. They don't manage to get much sleep, with every gust of wind pulling them awake. Before dawn Lieutenant Fucking Mitchell comes back and throws a bucket of ice water over them to wake them up. 

Turns out “punishment duty” means he and Clint are the guards' official punch bags. Still wet and shivering from their wake up call, they are forced to haul rocks from one end of the yard to another (to what purpose, Tony doesn't know), and when they slow down the lieutenant or one of his helpful guards encourages them with their batons. They do this for about two hours and then they are each given a loaf of stale bread, a cup of water and sixty seconds to eat. After that, it's back to the rocks. 

They see other recruits walking by briskly but no one stops or looks at them for long. Tony doesn't see Bruce. In the afternoon they clean bathrooms, on their knees, with a bucket of soapy water and two toothbrushes. Tony almost feels grateful. Anything is better than the rocks. 

They are left on their own then, with the strict instructions to finish each bathroom in an hour or there would be consequences. Tony doesn't want to think of the consequences. 

Clint is moving stiffly. He has been hit a lot and he was already black and blue when Tony met him. They start on the floors and talk quietly. Clint grew up in the circus and apparently isn't unused to rough treatment and hunger. Tony feels like a heel and carefully omits telling Clint his last name or too much about himself. 

He does tell him about Bruce and how he built the suit to get him out. 

“Didn't quite work out for ya, right?”

“Next time,” Tony replies and he means it. He's getting out of here and he's taking Bruce and Clint with him. 

After cleaning seven bathrooms in four floors it's already dark. They are led to the kitchen and told to wash the dishes. 

Tony is about to fall down were he stands. He's hungry, sore, his arms and hands are scrapped from carrying rocks all morning and everything hurts. He has never felt this exhausted before.

There are five boys and a girl cleaning the kitchen but the tall stacks of dishes are left solely for them. The other recruits don't talk to them and are careful to keep their eyes adverted, as if just looking at Clint and Tony would get them in trouble. Maybe it will...

There's no leftover food on the plates and Tony finds himself wishfully hoping there was. That's the worst part. 

Tony soaps, Clint rinses and they keep a steady flow of chatter. They discuss movies, music, ice cream and hamburgers and then stop for a moment when their stomachs rumble. The other recruits leave, finished with the kitchen, but it takes Clint and Tony another hour to be done with the dishes. Tony officially hates it here. 

The guards throw them in the cage again and Tony is so exhausted that he falls asleep almost instantly, ignoring the cold and the rough ground. 

The next morning the cycle starts again.

They spend three days in punishment duty and by the end of it Tony can barely move and he's sure he has at least two cracked ribs. Clint's ankle is horribly swollen but the guards wont take him to the infirmary, even though Tony begged for it and got a black eye for his efforts. 

The morning of the fourth day they are woken again by a bucket of freezing water but instead of taking them to the rock field, they are allowed to shower. The water is still cold but there's soap and shampoo and a towel to dry themselves with. They are given fresh ugly gray uniforms and told that another set and their toiletries are waiting for them in their footlockers. They get assigned to Barrack 4A, bunk 17 for Clint, 18 for Tony but they don't get to see their new quarters yet. After the showers they are sent to the mess hall for their first real meal in The Academy. 

Tony notices that their bracelets aren't glowing red anymore. Punishment duty is over. 

They limp to the mess hall and Tony barely steps in when he hears a familiar voice. 

“Tony!” Bruce sounds awful. He looks awful too. He has a healing bruise on his cheek and his eyes look furious. “You are an idiot!” Bruce says and gives Tony a fierce hug. 

Tony flinches and winces because his ribs are protesting loudly but he still hugs Bruce back. 

“Let him go, man! He's black and blue under that shirt,” Clint says and Bruce lets him go immediately. 

“Sorry,” Bruce says and he's looking at Tony as if someone died. “Oh God, Tony, I'm so sorry! You shouldn't be here, it's all my fault.”

“Can we have unnecessary guilt trip later?” Clint asks before Tony can say anything. “Food first, yeah?”

“Yes, Bruce,” someone says. “They just got here. Let's get them fed first.” The speaker is tall, and muscular and blond, with short hair and a shy smile. Tony lets him open a path towards the line and another, taller, even broader guy with longish blond hair lets them cut in. 

“Oh, fuck off, Rogers, have them wait in line like everyone else!” a guy with short brown hair and a sour look shouts. 

Shy smile guy, or Rogers, glares at the brunet and says. “Lay off, Cord, they are taking my place and Thor's.”

Cord shuts up and Rogers and the other big guy, Thor, move over and give Tony and Clint their spot in line. 

Tony isn't going to protest and even though the sludge they call oatmeal doesn't look particularly good, anything is better than water and stale bread. 

Tray in hand, Bruce guides them to a table at a corner where a redheaded girl is sitting. 

She gives them one look before going back to her meal. Clint and Tony sit down and start eating in silence. 

“Go slow,” the girl says. “Or you'll get sick.”

It's probably good advice so Tony forces himself not to wolf down his first real meal in days. A few minutes later Bruce, Rogers and Thor join them and the table is full.

They don't get the chance to talk much but Tony does learn everyone's name. The girl is called Natasha Romanov and she’s quiet. Rogers' name is Steve and he has been in The Academy since it opened. Thor Odinson just waves and introduces himself while chewing his food. 

They only have time for short introductions before Bruce informs them that they have to be outside for calisthenics by eight or they'll get demerits. 

“Great,” Tony says, “I'm back in kindergarten.”

“Earn enough demerits and you’ll have to pay them off in punishment duty,” Natasha says. “No one wants that.”

Tony manages not to shudder. Barely.

All the recruits are standing outside by eight o'clock. They are formed in lines and several guards surround them. Sargent gives out orders and everyone starts to run. 

Even though he's not starving now, Tony’s still too weak to keep pace with everyone else and by the time the warm up exercises are over he has earned two demerits for being “lazy”. The guards point a laser device at his bracelet and two of the led lights turn yellow.

Tony always hated PE and now he's being treated to four straight hours of jumping jacks, crunches, sit ups, rope climbing and obstacle racing. It's not that he's out of shape but everything still hurts and his ribs feel like they are cracking all over again every time he takes a deep breath. He's still embarrassed because clearly Clint is doing a much better job of handling himself and he went through as much shit as Tony. 

At midday they are allowed to break for lunch. Tony has another two demerits to add to his growing list and he practical falls asleep while waiting in line at the mess hall. Bruce lets Tony lean on him and the others remain quiet wile they wait for their food. It kind of looks like chicken but Tony can't be sure. He eats it anyway. 

Bruce tells him about his time in The Academy, hurriedly, between bites. It's as horrible as Tony thought. Maybe worse. They have training every morning and on the afternoons they are divided in groups and trained on their powers. 

“What the fuck!?” Tony almost chokes on his vegetables. “What do they do to you, then? Poke you until you turn into Big Green?”

Bruce gives him a sad smile. “Pretty much.”

“What are your powers?” Thor asks before Tony can start threatening to set the whole place on fire. Again. 

Clint shrugs, “Good aim?”

“I'm a genius,” Tony says dismissively. “What are they going to have me do? Math?”

It's pretty much what they do. After lunch Tony is placed in a classroom with a few other recruits, none he knows, and he's given a multiple choice test and a number two pencil. 

He reads the questions, they are high school level and he wouldn't be surprised if it's just a copy of this years SATs. Tony answers every single question wrong and then spends the rest of the time doodling a map of The Academy in the calculation sheets, which he carefully tucks inside his shirt. 

He's kept there for three hours and after that he joins another group of people, including Bruce, for martial arts training. They don't get to talk, though. There's no talking in any of the classes. 

He figures out quickly enough that he's in the beginners class. They are learning basic stands and ways to hold their body, no punching or kicking yet. The instructor isn't patient and he hits anyone who moves from their stance, or twitches or breathes too loudly. 

Tony actually did a bit of boxing before, Happy was a good instructor, but he keeps what little he knows to himself. Boxing is quite different from what they are teaching him now (he thinks it's jujitsu but he'll have to ask) but even if it wasn't, Tony doesn't want to cooperate more than he has to. 

Class lasts another three hours and then they go to dinner. It's the same probably-chicken than before and Tony eats it mechanically. 

“So what did they have you do?” Bruce asks as soon as they are seated. 

“Standardized tests.” Tony yawns. “Boring.”

“They had me shooting things,” Clint says. “It wasn't so bad.”

“And you?” Tony looks at Natasha. “What's your super power?”

“A bit of everything,” she says and goes back to her food. 

Tony looks at Steve next. “Strength, speed, accelerated healing,” Steve lists.

“Can I just ask then, why haven't you broke our of here yet?” Tony demands.

Steve gives him a look. “Because of this.” He raises up his manacled hand. “It dampens my powers. I can only access them when they allow it. It glows green. When the lights are off it means the powers are bound.”

“Plus, it delivers an electric shock if you step out of bounds,” Natasha adds. “It could fry your brain if it goes on for too long.”

“Didn't they explain this to you?” questions Thor. “Don't you feel weaker with it,” he glares at his own bracelet. “Trapped.”

Tony shakes his head. “There's nothing to weaken, really. I don't actually have any powers. The whole super smart thing was an excuse to keep me here. There are a few lights glowing yellow, though.” He shows his hand. “But I think those are demerits.”

“Oh crap,” Clint glares at his own bracelet, which has three lights on. The others' don't have any lights blinking on their bracelets. 

Steve frowns. “So you aren't really a super human?”

“Have any problems with that?” Clint asks, defensively. “'Cause I'm pretty sure the fact that I can aim doesn't mean I have super powers, either.”

“It's not that,” Steve says. “It's that they are now apparently kidnapping anyone they like.”

“Or don't like,” says Tony. “They clearly didn't like that I blew up their building and their fence and put some of them in the hospital.”

Clint high fives him and Tony grins. 

Thor's eyes widen. “That was you?”

“That suit had some firepower,” Natasha says, and she looks impressed. 

“You knew this, Bruce?” Steve asks and Bruce nods. “Oh,” Steve says, and then adds slowly, as if he just realized it, “That’s why you transformed when we found out the suit had exploded.”

“How did you survive that?” Thor wonders just as Clint says, “You exploded?”

Tony doesn't really get to answer because a guard shouts at them to move to their next assignment or else. Tony doesn't really know where to go. So far he has followed the others or been taken places by the guards. 

“Barton and Stark, you are on the kitchen this week,” a guard says, and like the previous nights, Tony and Clint find themselves washing dishes. It's different this time because the other recruits talk to them, now that their bracelets aren't glowing red, and they all pitch in. Also, the guards don't come in periodically to hit them. 

“We spent three days glued to each other and you didn't tell me the suit blew up?”

Tony shrugs and keeps soaping dishes. “I was down and I didn't want the fuckers to get it.”

“How aren't you fucked up worse?” Clint asks, looking him up and down.

“Good design,” Tony grins. “I planned the explosion to expand outwards instead of inwards. Still got a few cuts and bruises and I'm pretty sure my ribs started cracking then, but yeah, managed to walk away in one piece.”

After finishing in the kitchen, which goes much faster than when it was just Clint and Tony saddled with all the dishes, they clean the mess hall and then they are escorted to their bunks. 

Barrack 4A is a cold windowless room with ten rows of bunk beds. Their bunks at are the end of one row, by the far wall. 

Bruce, Steve, Thor and Natasha are on the same barracks. Boys sleep on the right, girls on the left. They appear to be the only ones there. Natasha explains that the recruits are divided by power level and that there are five levels. Two and three have the most recruits and five is empty. 

“How did I get four?” Tony asks. “I don't turn into a Rage Monster or have super strength, or,” he looks at Thor. “What do you do?”

“Super strength, and I can control thunder and lightening.”

Tony's eyes widen. “Cool! Well I can't do that either. How did I get in the same level thingy? Shouldn't I be in level one?”

“I think the fact that you are sixteen and destroyed half of their infrastructure had something to do with it,” Bruce points out. 

“I was put on three first but they changed it up after a week.” Natasha says. 

“To two,” Steve clarifies. “Until another recruit tried to assault her in the barracks and she broke his arms.”

Clint whistles. “Nice!”

“If you hurt them, they consider you a higher level threat,” Thor surmises. 

It's good that they are alone in their barracks because they get to talk. They huddle in the bunks further away from the door and stay awake most of the night, whispering, getting to know each other. 

Natasha doesn't say much but it's clear she hasn't had an easy life. She has been in a place like The Academy before, in Russia, and that's enough to make Tony shiver. She's nineteen and got caught in the airport when she was trying to leave the US. 

Thor is twenty and he has a brother. He doesn't speak his brother's name because he's still out there, hiding, and Thor doesn't want them to find anything about him. In fact, he only got caught because the military tracked their location and Thor stayed back to give his brother a chance to escape. 

Steve had actually enlisted and whatever his superpower is, it came as a result of an army experiment. He was the only test subject to survive and has been imprisoned for almost two years in different facilities. When the bill passed, he was one of the firsts recruits of The Academy. 

Tony dreams of his new bunk mates that first night in the barracks and he wakes up sweaty and tired the next morning. It becomes a routine: breakfast, calisthenics, lunch, tests, training, dinner and cleaning up. 

By the end of the week Tony has managed to acquire three more demerits and Clint keeps glancing at his one remaining off light. Apparently when the last light turns on the whole bracelet shines red again and it's back to punishment duty. 

“How do you keep earning so many of those?” Natasha asks, dismayed. 

Clint grins. “I'm an asshole.”

Tony smiles and high fives him. He has been worrying about Clint. Tony knows he owes, maybe not his sanity, but he definitely owes something big to Clint. Punishment duty would have been a lot worse if Clint hadn't been there with him and now Clint is one demerit away from going back to that. Alone. 

“What I want to know is why none of you get any demerits ever,” Tony asks with a pout.

“I got a few when I broke that guy's arm but they erased them,” Natasha replies smugly. 

“They do that?” Clint asks. 

“You get one demerit erased with every two weeks without any new ones,” Bruce explains.

“And you can also work them off,” Steve adds, quietly. 

“What? How!?” Tony has the feeling that the guards just decided to skip all the important details in his induction.

“In combat,” Thor says and he actually sounds exited about it. 

“Explain,” Tony says, ignoring the rest of the unidentifiable gruel they had served him for lunch. 

“Every Friday night we have matches. Win a match and you earn a token,” explains Natasha. “Lose a match and earn a demerit.”

“What is this? Battle Royal?” Tony is finding different ways to hate this place by the minute. 

“The only ones forced to fight are the four recruits chosen randomly,” Steve says. “Everyone else volunteers.” 

“So I can erase some of these lights?” Clint asks. 

“Two tokens for ever demerit,” says Bruce. 

“Two fights to erase one demerit and you’re only allowed one fight a week,” Natasha adds.

“Does this seem quite imbalanced to anyone else?” Tony wonders, dishearteningly. 

“Plus,” Bruce says slowly, clearly knowing he’s delivering more bad news, “Every punishment duty you get it’s worse.”

“How the fuck could it be worse!” Tony exclaims, suppressing a shudder. 

“They usually make it last a day more than the last time but few people let themselves get it a second time,” Natasha says. 

“Yeah, they buy tokens however they can,” and there’s disgust in Steve’s voice. 

“You mean like paying someone to lose a fight?” Clint asks.

“No,” Steve says. He takes a deep breath and his eyes shine with anger for the first time since Tony met him. “The guards and the administration can award tokens for certain services.”

“They are bribes,” Bruce says. “The offered them once to Steve for giving them a semen sample.”

“They say they would give me twenty tokens for any information on my brother,” Thor says angrily. 

“It can be anything they want from you and can’t get,” Natasha adds with a cryptic smile. 

“It’s how they break you down,” Bruce almost whispers. “Most people would do anything to avoid punishment duty.”

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah. I think that's it.


End file.
